Welcome to 3 and 3.

Three key facts in three minutes or less on the topics you care about most.

The Second Amendment and its original intent.

Key fact number one.

The actual text of the Second Amendment.

A well-regulated militia, comma, being necessary to the security of a free state,

comma, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, comma, shall not be infringed.

That comma, placed before the right of the people to keep and bear arms, has been studied at length and brings us to key fact number two.

What constitutes a well-regulated militia?

According to Founding Father George Mason, the militia was to be comprised of citizens, just like you and me.

I ask, sir, what is the militia?

It is the whole people, except for few public officials.

Mason also said,

To disarm the people, that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.

This definition is reiterated by many of our founding fathers, including Richard

Henry Lee, who echoed Mason's sentiment, a militia, when properly formed, are in fact the

people themselves, and include, according to the past and general usage of the states,

all men capable of bearing arms. Key fact number three. The Second Amendment covers all arms

and not just muskets. Politifact themselves confirmed that there were no laws prohibiting, for example,

canon ownership in the 1700s in America, as seen by James Madison's letter of Mark to a private ship.

When the Second Amendment was written, there were many weapons outside of the simple musket,

for example, ones that could fire multiple rounds, like the Belt and Flintlock,

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